Latin American Street Food in Los Angeles

Hi Everyone!

I'm so sorry I haven't been posting lately. I have been on a mission trip in L.A. with my husband's youth group this past week and thus haven't been cooking! It was an incredible trip: I led a group of (the greatest) 8 kids around the city doing service work with the homeless population and at-risk kids. We all learned so much about ourselves and our place in the complex, broken, and beautiful world around us.

Another thing I learned about high school kids, especially high school boys, is that they are ALWAYS HUNGRY. I swear they ate nine times a day. So, in between mission sites, we were constantly on the look out for food. After a morning of particularly-challenging service where we cleaned out a woman's house whom I would professionally classify as a hoarder, we stopped for lunch at this taco truck for a taste of local flavor. We technically weren't supposed to take the kids out for food because they had sack lunches... but they had just worked really hard in a really challenging situation and I justified it by pointing out that we were supporting the local economy.
These were my "carnitas" that I got. It was Heaven on Earth. Since Meredith and I's Mexican adventure in 2008, I have never found tacos in the States that recaptured that authentic street food flavor that she and I walked a mile every day to get while in Galeana.

Another morning we went on a scavenger hunt throughout downtown L.A. with a list of goals to accomplish. We were given boundaries to stay within.... but my group was dead-set on tracking down the infamous Nom Nom truck from the Food Network so we might have wandered outside the boundaries a few blocks. Clearly I'm not very good at following rules. (St. Martin's Youth Staff, if you're reading, please invite me back next year! I promise I'm a good leader!) We didn't find the Nom Nom truck, but we did find this awesome farmer's market right on the steps of City Hall. This is me drinking a huge class of freshly squeezed watermelon juice from an El Salvadorian vendor. Que delicioso.

On one of the last days we stopped at this incredible Mexican market for lunch. Everything looked amazing, and there were so many new and interesting things that I wanted try... so I ended up buying a huge assortment of goodies... way more than any one person could ever eat.
Below is my plate that I had to have two kids help me carry around. On the far left is a cup of fresh mango doused in chili powder and fresh lime. Notice the little Mexican flag on the top. On the right is a fried plantain with brown sugar. It was all warm and gooey and scrumptious. Below is an interesting dish called "elote", or roasted corn topped with some queso fresco and lime. (Traditionally they put mayonnaise in it, too, but since that makes me want to gag I left it out).

Ok. Y'all are probably tired of reading. You can stop now. The rest of this post has nothing to do with food....

This is a picture of a little girl that attended the Vacation Bible School we put on every afternoon. She had a pet duck.... and I had a fit. It was the cutest sweetest most precious little thing I have ever seen. I am currently in the process of concocting the perfectly persuasive argument that will convince Anthony that we need a pet baby duck. This little girl claimed that her baby duck was potty-trained and that it was good friends with her dog. So, I think I could likewise potty-train our baby duck and it could be a good little friend to our pit-bull, Willie. That could work, right?

Let me explain my obsession. Once upon a time I had a pet baby goose named Evadne. She was the best pet in the world. She loved to be cuddled and she followed me around every where I went with her sweet little "peep peep peep". This is a picture of me swimming laps in the pool, with Evadne dutifully following behind her mama. We won't talk about why she is no longer with us unless you want to cry, but suffice it to say that the hole she left in my heart has never been filled and so I think I need a baby duck. I will name her Antigone.